perakcruiser
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Posts posted by perakcruiser
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Went to guest services and was told it was not included only gelato..they were rude and short, and clearly don't like Americans
I am very sure the guest relation manager for US pax will either be American or British. Talk with him and not the guest relation desk. So many options to meet him every day.
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Certainly it is worth it. More than any other category probably. The disadvantage is the usual one, no daylight, something many people dislike.
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Yes, Limoncello. And if the Seaside has a Eataly Restaurant they sell some nice Italian products there that are ideal gifts. I have read in the daily program that they had an event where they sold Murano glass on the pooldeck.
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Is there any advantage to waiting to purchase internet until after we board? Any discounts for Voyager Club members, etc.?
There is never any advantage in waiting to purchase on board for anything. It will always be more expensive, no matter if it is internet or drink packages or speciality restaurants packages.
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Everybody recovered from Gragnano-Gate? Good, then we can continue.
A few things about the Armonia. This time I was cruising only with my mother, not my wife and daughter. But I wanted to know if the Kids club is as good as on Meraviglia. Yes, it is. Baby Care time every day 9:00-11:00, 15:00-16:00 and 19:00-21:00. Yeah!
19:00-21:00, that is dinner time. We had the first session in the MDR, 19:00 or on some days 19:15. Second seating is 21:30 or 21:45. You have Bella and start to panic because 21:45 is much too late for you? Relax, no problem, the Spanish and the Mexicans are happily all going to the second session.
OK, let´s talk about the nationalities on board. As usual the whole world in one boat, but different compared to MSC cruises in Europe. Much less Asians, easy to understand, when you were flying from Kuala Lumpur to Munich, from Munich to Madrid and Madrid to Havana. Yes, I was completely dead when we arrived Havana. Good that all was prepared by MSC, the tarjeta, the bus from airport to port and so on. What is different compared to Med cruises? Less Italians and Austrians, more Spanish, Germans and - no surprise - Americans (but not from the US).
I guess almost all the Europeans came with MSC flights and not individual bookings. MSC flew the geusts in from Russia, Panama, Holland, France, Germany, Italy and a lot from Madrid with connecting flights to UK, Munich and others. Unfortunately we had Air Europa, a really terrible airline. Feels like flying a LCC for 10 hours, try to avoid them. If you cannot get one of their Boing Dreamliners (they had one before, now two).
One thing about the Tarjeta. Only the first one is included in the cruise price (if you book cruise with flight). But the Armonia comes back to Havana after one week and then of cause after the second week. The Tarjetas will be delivered to your cabin but cost 15 Euros each. The one at the end of the cruise you need of cause, but the stop in the middle you can skip if you are not in the mood or have seen everything you want already at the first two days. Then you can return the Tarjetas at the Guest Service desk and stay on board.
OK, today I wanted to talk about the Armonia, Havana will be later. Before I start to complain some things I want to make clear that overall the ship is still great.
The cabin is not as modern as on the newer ships, but absolutely OK. We had one of the inside cabins with 2 extra beds, the extra beds on the wall did not disturb at all. Enough space for sure, just the shower with the shower curtain is quite a big difference compared to the new ships. The TV is LED meanwhile, but smaller, but that is not the problem. Well, Europeans, you cannot expect too much European channels, where should they get the signal?
But from MSC is expect that I can watch Formula 1 on the weekend of the Monaco Grand Prix, at least in the pub! I know it is shown in USA and Mexico, so there is no excuse. ESPN seems not to have the rights, two of their channels are shown. Women tennis and "Baseball" (I watched a little bit, this seems to be simplified version of Cricket, but much much more boring) instead of Formula 1, I had to hold back some tears. Good news for football fans, ESPN has a lot, also all there World Cup I know from their advertisement in the weeks before.
Not too much Non-American channels, but some good movies at least? Unfortunately not, yes, they have a movie channel for all common languages, but all with the same movies. Very low quality US movies, so sad! And these 5 or 7 movies never change in the two weeks, come on! The person who selected the movies should be caned.
Problem No 2 is a much bigger thing. I love coffee and was looking forward to cool down with MSCs frozen coffee delights. I am used to the system that only one coffee bar serves the speciality coffees. But what I am not used to is that the Caffe San Marco opens only from 17:00! The "alcohol bars" like the White Lion Pub open at 8:00, but the coffee bar at 17:00, what logic is this? And as you expect, on many days the guests hang around at 17:00 and certainly they don´t open one minute earlier, so if you are unlucky (and service in San Marco was really slow) you get your coffee at 17:30.
Did you realize that the good old Shuffleboard disappears more and more from the new ships. No like! So I was happy to remember the rounds of Shuffleboard we played in 2011 and brought my mom up the sports area to collect the sticks and discs. Well, some discs are missing, no Shuffleboard. I have the slight suspicion that these discs maybe not missing since yesterday.
OK, you think I am complaining so small things? No, I just tell the things I did not like. Overall I give this cruise 4 from 5 stars. The forth star MSC captured on the very last day. We had a flight out of Havana at 20:55 so leaving the cabin in the morning would not be a source of happiness. MSC was very generous, we could stay at the cabin until 16:00, almost until disembarking at 16:40. That is really great, we fully used this last day with one more Havana trip and then had shower and a late lunch on board.
Food was spotless, at the buffet (big selection!) as well as MDR where the classics from MSC were found (with the best steak I ever had from MSC) extended by some Carribean dishes. The menu did NOT repeat after one week! One or two more difficult pasta dished did not have the exactly the "Meraviglia quality", but nothing to complain and over-compensated by the steak. Fish good as always. The Pizza was also great as always, "Best pizza at sea", you all know it. I had the feeling the mozzarella was not the same very high MSC quality like in Europe, but maybe this was just a feeling, I would need to taste the Meraviglia and the Armonia pizza at the same time. And we in Malaysia have Mozzarella and Parmesan from Australia, please let´s not talk about this.
Next will be shows and wine :)
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Sorry, maybe I am just from another culture, you can choose if Asian or European, have both :)
And yes, for me it sounds quite strange to order a cocktail at dinner. I really cannot remember that I have seen anything else than water, wine, beer or Pepsi on a dinner table on a cruise. I am trying hard to remember if this was different at Celebrity, but no, I cannot remember seeing anything else.
Ah, OK, Grappa and Limoncello also on the tables of the Italians.
But all this does not mean that the waiter will not go to a bar to bring to you what you want. But nothing except wine and beer by the glass, water and softdrinks will be included in your MEALTIME RESTAURANT DRINK PACKAGE of cause.
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The "normal" MDR drinks like softdrinks, water, beer and wine you order from the waiter. I don´t think the waiter will go to a bar to get a mixed drink for you and I never saw somebody having one in the MDR, but this I don´t know. I also don´t know for sure if the waiter will go to get a coffee for you in the evening, but I have seen Italians drinking Espressi after dinner :)
Beamafar, for years now I have seen La Zolla as house wine on every MSC ship in every region. I have given up hope but maybe the US is the exception ;)
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Did you visit Club Tropicana?
No, but I will include the info we got about it in the review.
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Sorry, I wrote it with wordpad and when copying it here, the format became a disaster. Did my best to edit, the other parts I will write directly in here.
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A lot. But where to start? Probably the reader is most interested in tips and tricks for the Armonia 2018 route in the Carribean, how to rent a classic car in Havana, the „tarjeta“ and so on. Will have, but later.
Let me begin in 2011 when I was cruising with the MSC Armonia in EasternMed (Italy, Greece, Montenegro, from Venice, which alone is priceless). At this time the Armonia had no Balcony cabin category, only Inside, Outside and Suite. The Balcony cabins were added later when the ship had surgery. Also no Bella, Fantastica and Aurea, but a lot of different cabin categories, five for inside and five for outside, all different prices! I had the feeling that there is no real difference anyway apart from location, but not only MSC had this system, all other Euopreans I knew also.
With my girlfriend at this time I had a suite on deck 10. The cabin still exists, now it is a Aurea suite. About all I write from 2011 keep in mind that this is seven years and many many cruises in the past, probably I don´t remember everything correctly. Feel free to correct me if you know it better.
What I remember is a much higher level of equality on board. Actually I don´t remember any advantage about the Suite except the bigger cabin with balcony and bathtub. I think we not even had any priority boarding. No places on the ship reserved for suite guests. The rules of the old MSC Club were quite simple, one night on board, one point, inside cabin or suite, no difference.
Also worth to mention, at this time MSC still was breaking the law happily. The Service Charge (7 Euro per person per day) could not be canceled without giving a reason and discuss this with the Guest Relation Manager. Anyway we had nothing to complain, it was a great cruise on a wonderful ship. We had chosen it because the price of the suite was almost like a inside cabin on other lines. The quality of the food was not as good as now, but not bad. House wine there were only two (!) from Sicily to choose, Nero d’Avola and Inzolia, both not good at all. It costed me many more cruises to find out how to enjoy wine with MSC. I will share this with you later.
So what about the Armonia 2018? The ship is still a beauty. Meanwhile the US companies also have improved the looks about their ships, especially Celebrity, also NCL, but MSCs Old Lady still can compete without doubt. Inside at first sight there is not too much inequality. No „speciality restaurants“ which anyway means „pay extra restaurants“, I appreciate. But there is a big change that MSC never communicated. At least it not reached me.
The MDR on deck „La Pergola“ is now a „My choice“-Dining restaurant only for Fantastica Balcony or Suite guests. Aurea and Wellness guests also have a special sun deck, as seen on the other MSC ships. I would not care too much, BUT also the Menu @ Le Pergola is different. You will not be suprised to hear that it is better. Many dishes are the same, but they offer some special dishes from speciality restaurants from other MSC ships to choose. And more homemade and Gragnano pasta. Actually we did not get any Gragnano pasta in the Marco Polo MDR in all the two weeks. No problem, because I did not expect it anyway in the Carribean, still MSCs happy wish to get 100% of the suggested Service Charge was illusory from this moment.
I probably would have gone crazy if we would have had a Bella Balcony and not spent the few Euros more for such a big difference, but as we had Bella Inside and we were overall absolutely satisfied with the food in the MDR, no big deal. Just remember this when you book a Balcony cabin on the ships from the Armonia class (officially Lirica class). -
This will be our first time on Seaside. What does the MEALTIME RESTAURANT DRINK PACKAGE A consist of? Is it only their (MSC) selected Red or White wine or may you get a Pink Ziegfeld?
A what? Anyway, only La Zolla wines are included. If you are a serious wine drinker, you will not be happy with them. If you want to BUY a cappucino in the MDR the waiter will go to the closest bar and bring you one from there. Probably it would be a friendly gesture not to send the waiter around the ship while he is most busy to serve the dishes.
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Fusilli alla Norma from MSC, sounds like such a simple dish, but so delicious.
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No side rails. The 6 year old should not fall down, if you have concerns with the 3 year old, you sleep up :)
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And I doubt that OP will pay a lawyer thousands of dollars to litigate this.
Same like the very strange other thread with the food poisoning: You Americans must know that almost everybody in Western Europe has a legal expenses insurance which allows them to sue everybody for every reason at zero costs. And because of this every lawyer takes every case even if the chance to win is 0,01%.
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On our cruise in May the vouchers were marked with a punching so it was obvious that it were vouchers from this cruise. But I also want wetwash to try :)
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You need to book your tickets for the Burj Khalifa online long time in advance.
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Not according to the article on the subject, P:
"This offer is available on ALL new bookings made from 1st May 2018 and will be available to all guests on all our ships".
I asked MSC in Austria (where I am at the moment), "all guests" when written on the Irish webpage means "all Irish guests". They don´t know and care what MSC Ireland or MSC USA is offering, something like this will not happen in Central Europe in the near future. But more mealtime drinks included promos are available this summer.
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MSC always had the policy that you can cancel (for example) land excursions only with a letter from the ships hospital. Usually this costs 70 Euro and the excursion costs maybe 65 Euro, so people mostly either just go on the excursion or just forfeit.
And IF the hospital is not billing you that must have a reason. I also see zero chance for a proof of food poisoning that MSC is liable for without the respective medical documentation.
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MSC has recently changed its policy on charging for water in the MDR. All bookings made from May 1st 2018 onwards will have water, tea & coffee in the MDR included:
https://www.msccruises.ie/en-ie/MSC/Water-Tea-Coffee-Guests.aspx
This friendly gift is only available for MSC friends from Ireland ;)
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My question is...since the cruise will have already started 2 days before Barcelona, I assume the ship and our room will be fully ready when we embark in Barcelona? Does that mean we can check-in embark any time, even early in the morning?
The embarking time has nothing to do with this. MSC will start embarking a couple of hours after their arrival time. And the cruise is not really starting two days before, think about an endless circle (for a couple of months) where the cruise starts and ends every day. Don´t worry, they are used to this and able to keep it totally straight.
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How formal is formal, especially for men?
This decision everybody has to make for himself. But short trousers especially @ Gala night can end in being turned away at the entrance.
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Instead of doing a full opera, like Madame Butterfly, I would enjoy a medley of opera tunes. Much like a "Salute to Broadway", some of the more well-known opera tunes. I would like that... Nessun Dorma, I love that song!
Exact that is what they are doing, they never did a full opera. Only medley of popular "highlights", chance for Nessun Dorma is quite high ;)
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Sadly opera and classical music is very limited now on all MSC ships. Sorry, but people who complain that it is too much must be completely out of their minds. It is really limited to maximum two or three shows per week and even on this night there is the "normal" entertainment programm going on also. I guess people who don´t like opera and classical music will not even realize that it is shown in the very limited slots.
But the good news MSC is still much better than the others. We loved the Mezzo woman and the Tenor on the Armonia and we were not the only ones.
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Perakcruiser ... there is only one embarkation port on this itinerary and that is Miami.
OK, must be because of the US port. On our two week cruise (review still in progress) with the Armonia really every port had guests embarking. Lots of Mexican guests. So in the future it seems there will be only European an US pax on the Armonia, maybe another ship is doing a route without Miami for the others.
Daisy P
, yes, we registered with a German address as we have relatives there. Anyway, MSC never sends anything by post.
Inside Bella
in MSC Cruises
Posted
No, it is first come, first serve on the ship when you want to change your dinner time. But usually you get the time of your choice anyway already in advance.
Yes, but only US guests. I would not be suprised if all this extra free gifts for US pax will end in 2019, they did this to capure a market and it seems they did this very successful (mostly of cause because of the "crazy" status match).